Anyone ever have issues with 10% ethanol blend gasoline?

[megaladon6]

one note on ethanol on an engine built to run on E85 you can get shitloads of power, and be green. well sort of green. the emissions from your tailpipe are lower, but what it takes, at least as present in the US, to make it is pretty bad.

 

[powerhungry oxymoron]

There are two big problems with 10% ethanol gas. The first is the ethanol causes the gasoline to breakdown faster, even with stabilizer. It's only good for about three months even with stabil. The ethanol also causes condensation inside the gas tank. That is why boaters hate it so much. They cant leave the gas in the tank for any extended period without causing major issues. The end result is usually hard starts and clogged fuel injectors. A few of my friends have spent hundreds on their boat motors after leaving 10% in their tank for only three or four months even with stabil. It isn't an issue for carburated engines but it spells death for fuel injection. If you leave it long enough it will breakdown enough and build up enough water to not run in anything.

 

[79GP6.6L]

The boaters are mad because fiberglass fuel tanks melt from the alcohol. Also if you store the boat without topping off the fuel tanks, you get condensation over the winter and water gathers then clogs the fuel filters in the Spring, so now they need filter/seperaters. As far as fuel systems in general, the Coast Guard mandated new alcohol resistent fuel lines many years ago, and carb kits come with alcohol resistant parts. What kind/year car is this?

89 Formula, 350 SBC with Edelbrock heads, Crane cam (Powermax 2050), Holley Stealthram, 24lb injectors, T56 6 speed, 3.27 rear gears. Went over the whole car today, ignition system is good, all injectors firing, no trouble codes, no data out of place on the scanner except it seems to be running a bit on the lean side, but has 40+lbs of fuel pressue, normal vacuum gauge readings, valvetrain is quiet.

 

[1evilregal]

I don't know if this pertains to your particular problem, but if you check on some of the years of cars that were produced with e-85 capability, and the same year make/model( I'll use a ford taurus as an example) that was made to run on standard gas mixtures, the fuel pumps are different part #'s... something to do with the alcohol content burning up the pumps/injectors if it wasn't equipped to run e-85....

hope I made sense here...

 

[79GP6.6L]

Makes sense to me.

I don't think its a fuel pump issue, since I have plenty of pessure at the fuel rails. I wouldn't be surprised if the injectors were restricted though. Maybe I'll go dig up my injector cleaning kit.

 

[Bonnewagon]

I have found fuel injected cars less tolerant of bad gas. I'd drain it and start with fresh fuel and filter.